When you are homeschooled, is it harder to make new friends?

Answer 1

This past year way my oldest son's first year homeschooling. I can answer this due to his reactions to the changes in his life. Yes, he had friends in school....friends he played with on the playground, friends he talked with some between classes, (he was in 4th), and yes, he was invited to some birthday parties and things of that nature with the kids he met at school.....NOW, the friends he makes are on a different level. For one thing, they are not all the same age, some are his age, some younger, some a little older. He doesn't have to prove anything to these kids, he has genuine playtime with these guys. Time at the YMCA, swimming and playing ball. Each Wednesday, the kids meet at a park for "hanging out time". They have a book club together. It is on a different level. By the way, he still see's his friendss from public school, we've made sure of that, our decision was to add to his life, not to take something away.

In public school my son worried about his clothes, getting the same game his friends had, those type of things. Now his friendships are based on many common interests, like the homeschool 4-H program where he might hang out with other kids who like photography, or classes at the local YMCA where they meet other kids by just hanging out in the pool or gym during the homeschool gym and swim program.

In a word, NO, I don't think it is harder to make new friends if you are homeschooled and my son agrees!! And he has been a really backwards kid before. Now his confidence is better!

Answer 2

Maybe to a certain degree, but the friends homeschooled kids tend to make tend to be really, really good friends, instead of a lot of basic friends. If you live in an area with a good homeschool support group or some sort of homechool network, making friends should be fairly easy but it does take greater effort than at school.

btw, I wish people would stop thinking that homeschooled kids spend all their time at home! Most homeschooled kids I know are done their book work in the morning and have all afternoon to do things with others.

Answer 3

I'm homeschooled, but I was at an actual school up till 10th grade so I have a lot of friends that I am still in touch with from school and that there are those few life long friends that you can't live without and I have a couple of them. I go out a lot and am involved in a lot of stuff so I meet new people and make new friends all the time.

Answer 4

That all depends on the person. (Your social skills and your personality.) Most homeschooled kids that I know have a busy life. They do everything that public school kids do, and then some. They now have homeschool football, soccer, band... you name it. They usually have youth groups, and things such as piano or guitar lessons. There are homeschool co-ops, where kids go and learn things that their parents don't teach such as carpentery or maybe cooking or sewing... Most homeschooled kids are very smart and their test scores are usually in the top percentiles. (Yes, they have to be tested by the state.) There are also shy kids in public school who really never make friends...
All in all it really is up to the individual.

Answer 5

i wouldn't think so. home-schooled kids have a tendency to have much stronger bonds with their family than random kids at, say, schools or clubs. but if that individual person is less shy than others, they wouldn't have a hard time making friends if they wanted to and had the opportunity to see other kids. many people think home-schooled individuals are interesting, and love to talk to them about how it's different if they get the chance to meet one. one of my own friends from school IS homeschooled--sounds like an oxymoron, i know. but he goes for the elective classes and is homeschooled for the core classes. hope that helped!

Answer 6

Absolutely no, it's not hard at all!!! I am a home school graduate, I was home schooled all my life and through my home school organization we had planned group activities almost every other week. There are always new home schoolers so you always find new people to hang out with. We would get together with other home schoolers in the area and just have a day out (SO totally fun!). I was also fortunate enough to be able to finish an entire year of college while I was in high school, so I made lots of new friends there as well.

All in all, the whole hype about home schoolers not getting enough of a social life makes me sick...

Answer 7

That depends upon which age the friends would be. The reason homeschooled kids have such pleasant personalities is because most of their contact is with adults, not with other kids. So, they relate much better to adults. The public school kids are somewhat hostile to adults.

Since their social contacts are usually with adults, they find they have a lot in common with other h.s. kids, who are also more oriented to adults and adult behavior.

As far as making friends with public school kids, h.s. kids may have nothing in common with kids who have no religious training and are often profane in language and behavior. Some of us don't think this is bad.

Answer 8

For me it is. I am naturally shy and being homeschooled made me even more shy. I think that home schooled kids have higher standards when it comes to selecting friends and thus have less possible friends to choose from.

Answer 9

I don't think so. I believe that the ability to make friends is based on your personality, your charisma, the way you conduct yourself... not on whether or not you spend 7 hours sitting behind a desk with other "kids your own age".

Answer 10

I know some kids that are home schooled... I feel sad for them... how can they make friends? the only friends they have are from a tennis club they are playing at, and kids they meet in tennis tournaments...